Tax and spend Liberalism morphs into socialism
Get used to it.
If you thought the Health Tax that McGuinty introduced shortly after his 2003 election was the only time he’d break faith with voters, think again.
We are poised to absorb the HST – a tax grab that will simply suck away discretionary dollars from everyone in Ontario. With fewer dollars to spend our economy will contract – yet again. It means fewer dollars for movies, restaurants, home renos and that huge part of the economy that underpins demand for all kinds of day to day products and services. Economic activity is a spiral, and it’s going in the wrong direction.
And now, in advance of a key Ontario budget, where Ontarians will find out how their government will handle the $25 billion tsunami of budget deficits, McGuinty has slipped in another tax. This time it’s a little clip-on to your hydro utility bill.
It’s supposed to pay for all the home energy audits and rebate programs the Liberals have created to promote conservation measures. Those programs have some value. However, like all Liberal ideas they have a significant cost and it is simply disingenuous to tack on those costs to utility bills. It’s a form of off-ledger accounting.
No matter how you cut it, this is a tax increase. In fact it is a very clear cut example of Liberal-think. They are directly taxing utility bills to pay for programs for utility users. It used to be that taxes were collected for those limited things of general public good. However the Liberals have created taxes from one select user group to benefit selected members of that user group. In truth, they’ve been doing this for years, expanding taxation into user fees and income redistribution programs. If that seems beyond the scope of taxation and government power – it’s because it is. The Liberals continue to grow the nanny state a little bigger.
And if you thought tax increases were complete – think again. We are going to see all manner of tax increases. They be disguised as mandatory user fees, they’ll be in your face scattered through out the current tax code. It amounts to the death of the middle class by a thousand tax increases.
Tax and spend Liberalism has morphed into socialism.
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